Laraena Silver
Arctic Elf Dragon Summoner.
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Is Mayor-Magistrate Asanda Home?
We moved into the building. We found an old woman sitting in a chair. Laraena spoke with her, asking after the Mayor. She said he could not be disturbed & we should leave. We said we needed to speak with him about some missing Dwarven workers. During this conversation several party members became aware of some hidden creatures on the other side of the room. Imryll cast a Faerie Fire spell on the area he heard them in, revealing 2 invisible creatures. They immediately attacked, including the old woman, who revealed herself as another snake person! We quickly finished off the group of them.
Moving further in, we found the area submerged in about 2 feet of water. Here we fought 2 large Snakes. They were quite a pain, but Argent managed to hold them off the rest of the group pulled together to heal her & finish them off. As we turned to rest we heard a larger creature coming from a nearby room. It turned out to be a huge Crocodile. It immediately attacked Argent, but then turned it’s attentions to Gazzean, swallowing him whole. We finished it off and cut him out. We then retreated to the entrance to rest & heal. Afterward, we moved in again, choosing to ignore several side rooms. As we pushed our way into a room that rose above the level of the water we met a human man with a pet panther. He introduced himself as a Mayor-Magistrate, but not the one we were looking for. He also told us that Asanda was not available. He then dropped the disguise on him and his cat, turning to attack. We made very quick work of him. We found the double doors straight ahead to be barred, so we turned to one side, heading through a smaller door. We found a hallway that led around to seemingly the same room we had just found barred. Inside we found a group of people seemingly having a party. In one corner stood one of the same type of Lizardfolk we had seen (and dispatched) out front. We questioned them and quickly became aware that most of the humans here were illusions. One of them however turned out to be real & said he was Mayor-Magistrate Asanda! There was definitely something off with him though. He seemed almost to have 2 personalities. We chose to take him alive, not worrying so much about the Lizardfolk guard. As the fight was joined, Asanda called out “Guards”! More Lizardfolk joined the fight! While it was a protracted fright, we managed to kill everyone, except Asanda, who it seemed was a Lizardfolk too. We still took him alive for questioning and just in case.
A Frog captured!
We continued looking for Froglegs. The next bridge we came to seemed a bit more rickety than the others. Gazzean confirmed this, telling us to be careful crossing & to keep some distance from one another. However, most of us noticed a giant flying shape in the mist just across the bridge. Orkbolt recognized this as a Giant Dragonfly. They were known to travel in packs. Laraena started the fight with a fireball, hoping to hit any others that might be over there. Unfortunately, there turned out to only be the one Dragonfly... and an I'ikodragon, as identified by Laraena. The Dragonfly went down quickly, but the Dragon was a pain to deal with due to our lack of ways to manage flying creatures. We regrettably had to kill the Dragon, though we did find it's nest and some gems inside it. Across the bridge we found a reinforced hut. Argent knocked. When there was no answer, she pushed the doors open. Inside were 2 Grippli, one of which turned out to be Froglegs! We took them out with surprisingly little effort, capturing them both alive. We looked for the missing Clan Dagger. We did not find it & when we questioned Froglegs about it she told us that this Dwarf, Kalbo, was one of her best infiltrators. The Dwarf had fooled us! Janatimo thanked us for using restraint. Froglegs bragged she was not the biggest bad guy in town. She explained that the Magistrate was not what he seemed & was a very bad fellow! We made our way back to the Magaambya, where Janatimo asked us to take the prisoner to the Chime Keepers for justice. We then took the afternoon off!
The following day we tried to remove the disease for Orkbolt, with no success. Imryll was able to shake it off. We sent Orkbolt to see the healers at the Magaambya while the rest of us went to return the stolen goods we had retrieved from Frogleg's lair. We took another night's rest, then headed to see Janatimo. He told us that we would be better to investigate the Magistrate as we could go places in a less official manner than the faculty of the Magaambya could. He asked if we were willing and ready. We agreed and headed off to start the investigation! He also rewarded us each with a spell scroll for capturing Froglegs alive. We then went to gather information about the Magistrate. We learned that the 6 Dwarven workers supplied by the Mason's guild had not reported back. They had not been seen since they had worked for the Magistrate. We headed to the Magistrate's house to ask about these missing workers. We found 3 men waiting out front who tried to turn us away, saying the Magistrate was not well. When pressed they turned into Lizard people and attacked! We dealt with them, but they were actually pretty tough! We rested a bit afterward before continuing into the mansion.
Time for some Frog Legs!
We met with Instructor Janatimo the following morning to discuss what he had found out about Froglegs. He got right to the point, letting us know he had found enough information that we could go see about bringing Froglegs to justice. He told us that Froglegs actually lived in the swamp outside of town. We set out to find her lair. The air grew steadily more oppressive as we headed into the swamp. Finally, Janatimo cast a spell that made the air much easier to breathe when we were close to him. We soon found a hut in the swamp area. As Orkbolt checked the door for traps, Imryll heard someone running off into the swamp off to the SE, whistling while they went. Orkbolt, sensing no traps, heard movement on the far side of the door, nodded to the group and threw the door wide open. Inside, we were attacked by 2 Grippli and a Gnoll. We quickly beat 2 of them unconscious, nearly dropping the 3rd. The 3rd surrendered and confirmed we were on the right path to find Froglegs. We told it to make itself scarce. It would not go well for it if we saw it again. We then rested for a bit before heading further into the swamp.
Almost immediately, we were attacked by a large crocodile that grabbed Orkbolt from the water and attempted to carry him back into the swamp. We managed to foil it's plans, thankfully. Orkbolt was not having a good day between this and diseases he seemed to be attracting here in the swamp. After the fight, Orkbolt recalled that crocodiles like this usually lived in packs. This one being alone seemed to indicate it was a trained creature. We moved on to the next hut. Here we found 4 more Grippli & a Dwarf. The Dwarf turned on the Grippli once the battle was joined. Once we defeated them the Dwarf introduced himself as Kolbo. He explained he was trying to infiltrate this group as Froglegs had stolen a Clan Dagger from him some time ago. He was glad to see us going after her but wanted nothing to do with a direct confrontation with her. He asked that we return his Clan Dagger to him if we found it. We asked him to describe the dagger. Gazzean recognized the clan from the description. We rested a bit, then moved forward once more. As we did, we heard Kolbo whistling the tune we knew would call off the crocodile we had passed...
Breaking and Entering??
We did some quick healing and then headed further into "Old Firepot's" complex. Moselani did not show up, so we assumed she went back to the Magaambya. As we moved in, Orkbolt noticed some boulders set precariously. He pointed them out just before we would have triggered them to fall upon us. Unfortunately, while trying to figure out how to get past, Argent set off the trap on top of Gazzean and herself! Taking some time to rest and heal while others cleared the rubble we heard the Minotaurs starting to stir after about 20 minutes. We took some time to go see if the Minotaurs were in a more talkative mood. It turned out they were no longer interested in fighting us. They told us they were quitting & would trouble us no longer. We asked about why they had attacked us. They understood that Firepot wanted them to attack anyone from the Magaambya. They never went back further into the complex. We left them with an admonition to think twice about attacking people who are only asking questions, in future! We then cleared away enough rubble to get through. Here we found 2 gates, one leading north, the other to the south. Orkbolt picked the lock on the northern door. Gazzean then opened it, setting off a large jet of flame that hit most of the group. Inside we found 2 fire elementals seemingly heating a pipe in the corner of the room. They did not notice us so we decided to try the other gate. Inside this room the stench was almost unbearable. We continued through the room to a solid iron door. Gazzean swung it open. We found a laboratory/forge and arcane study strewn with various crafting equipment. As we entered the room we saw a Human man with a flaming great cat beside him! We managed to confirm that he was indeed the one causing the damage and that he had been promised a sum of 550gp for some items purchased. He felt the Magaambya should pay their debt as they were students. He gave the names of the 2 lizard folk who had been impersonating students. He gave an ultimatum, saying he expected his money or the attacks would resume the next day. We decided to bring this information back to Janatimo to see how the Magaambya would like it handled. We decided to see Janatimo, then look for Moselani.
Janatimo was in his office when we arrived. He took this information and told us we should speak with the clerks at the financial office if we wanted to get Old Firepot paid off. We then chose to look for Moselani. We eventually found out she had been seen at the Warden House, the administrative area. Once she finished speaking with a Halfling woman she suggested we go outside to speak. She was adamant we were wrong to continue attacking the Minotaurs, rather than retreat. We felt we had been right to continue the investigation by subduing them. She explained she felt there was another way to proceed and hinted that she had found more information from the clerk she had just been speaking with. Eventually she walked away, unhappy that she was unable to convince us to her way of seeing things. We then turned to the Halfling that we saw her talking to, as it happens, the clerk that we were looking for. She revealed that Firepot had been in a few weeks back and submitted for reimbursement of some expensive acids. We attempted to convince her it was in the best interest of the school to just pay him. She just kept quoting the rules at us. We left to discuss ways we felt we could proceed. Eventually we decided to go see Shokon to see if perhaps we could get the alchemical acids at cost to reimburse Firepot. As it turned out, Shokon had the alchemical liquids found at the lizardfolk's lair. He freely offered it up if it would help. We then took it to see Firepot. We were somewhat surprised to see Moselani already there speaking to Firepot. Laraena had enough and left it to Moselani to deal with this without her help, since she seemed to think she was so superior to the rest of the group.
It turned out she was offering membership at the Magaambya to Firepot. He agreed to this. The rest of the group explained that the students were imposters and offered the remaining alchemical acid back. This convinced him to forgive the debt & cease his attacks. On the way back Moselani once again made her case for how she felt the group should have acted. She was met with varying success. Later that same day we received a package from Firepot with items to say thank you & a letter from Teacher Janatimo asking us to meet with him.
Janatimo keeps us busy!
We took a bit of time to heal up and then started searching the building for further clues. We found some loot in chests & then in the last room we found the 2nd Iruxi we felt should be here. He attacked and refused to be taken alive when we offered to stop combat & talk. He decided this when he caused his weapon to explode, wounding everyone around him, including himself. Afterward, we found some musical instruments in a locked chest. We felt these probably belonged to the buskers. We took them back to the square and started asking around. Soon enough all the items had been claimed. We then headed back to the Magaambya to rest and recuperate. The following day we took some time to practice our stories in preparation for the performance at the Black-Crowned Cane restaurant. We then met Teacher Janatimo at the restaurant to enjoy the evening! Moselani won the event, telling tales of Elven tribes diverging in the distant past. We spent the rest of the night socializing at the restaurant.
The following morning we were summoned to see Teacher Janatimo once again. He felt he was close to having the information we needed to go after Froglegs, but before then he asked that we try to track down the source of the fires being set on campus. He said that they seemed far too many for them to be accidental now. We were told we could look into 3 areas. The Lecture Hall, Dormitory and the Alchemy Lab. We chose to investigate the Alchemy Lab. While mostly covered in dust, we did find some burns on the walls. Gazzean and Orkbolt were able to tell the burns were alchemical in nature & then hit with magical fire. They were trying to spell something out. Several people were able to see one of the words was "debts". We then headed to the Lecture Hall. We again found burn marks on the walls, amidst layers of dust in this unused building. This time we could make out the word "Pay". Finally, we headed to the Dormitory. Once more, this unused dorm was covered in dust & had scorch marks on the walls. The word here was "Your". We debated a while before finally deciding on going to speak with Haibram, the jetpack inventor, before remembering that Haibram had needed help from Gazzean to create his jet fuel. We then decided to go speak with Shokan at the Powder Pile about who might be buying the ingredients needed for the alchemical gel used in these incidents. He said we should go see "Old Firepot" at his forge outside Nantambu. However, we should be careful as he does not always appreciate visitors.
As we traveled towards his forge, several of us recalled that Firepot uses Minotaurs for staff at the forge. Moselani tried to get information from the 2 Minotaur attendants, with some help from Imryll. However, once she mentioned the Magaambya the conversation quickly went downhill. The Minotaurs became enraged and attacked! We took them to school for their temerity. Moselani felt we should leave, but the rest of us felt the Minotaurs would just run us down and take us out with their charge attacks. After the fight we gathered up to discuss whether we should move forward to find more information or not...
More stuff to do! Oh my!
We checked the board once again, noticing a new request from Teacher Zuma, labeled Garden Preservation. He stated he was in dire need of assistance! We still had 2 requests from Teacher Janatimo still outstanding as well. We went to see Teacher Zuma. He told us that he enjoyed visiting the carnivorous gardens. Apparently, they had closed the garden because of an experiment in how they feed the plants at the garden. The researcher that caused this was named Natafoe. We excused ourselves and went to the gardens! We quickly found Natafoe. She showed us what she had been doing to find a meat alternative for the plants, explaining that she moved forward too quickly and several assistants were "absorbed" by the plants. She told us that the oozes she had been feeding them may be the cause of the plants becoming more violent. She explained there was a green, a black and a yellow ooze she had fed them. The plants actually changed colors & seemed to be trying to pull free of the ground. We made out way into the garden... Luckily, we had quite a few people who were good with plants in our group. This helped us avoid much of the hazards, while helping the plants where we could. We ended up not being able to save any "infected" plants, fought a bunch of oozes & found a chest under a bench in the garden. We returned the chest to Natafoe. She was happy to see it as this was her missing research case. She gave us a gold reward, promising to send along something more interesting to the school later. We returned to the school to report to Teacher Zuma. Once he learned that he could return to the gardens he pushed past us and rushed away, without rewarding us!
We decided to rest before looking into the other message board requests. However, on the way we heard rumors of a body washing up on the lake shore nearby. We decided to go see if this was the person we had helped "escape" the city. When we arrived we found Teacher Ot overseeing the scene. We told him we came to see if this was anyone we knew. He allowed us to see if we could identify it. It did indeed turn out to be Abeo, the man that we thought it might be. Looking closer we noticed that there was something lodged inside of a wound on his neck. It turned out to be a lockpick sized for a Grippli hand. Most likely belonging to Froglegs. We informed Teacher Ot about this and he told us to be safe & come back safely. We then went back to the dorms to rest for the rest. The next morning we asked around about the fires we had heard rumors about, but could not find any concrete leads to follow. We then went to see Teacher Janatimo. We told him about the body of Abeo washing up on the lake shore. He said he had not narrowed down which gambling establishment yet, but that once he did he would go with us. We then asked about the tasks he had posted on the message boards. He said the Buskers needed help, as they were being robbed. The criminals were very efficient. It was odd since noone robs Buskers to get rich! Buskers all over the city were being hit. We then asked about the "Tell a Tale" task. He told us that in 2 days we were all signed up for a tale telling contest at the Black-Crowned Cane Restaurant. We agreed to this and then went to see what we could find out about the problems the Buskers were having.
We headed back to the market where we had spoken with the Alchemist about the bad supplies. Moselani played the violin, Laraena recited historical verse, Orkbolt performed acrobatic feats, Gazzean attempted to blend in, watching the crowd & TIX3 accosted Buskers. It took about 3 hours, but eventually Gazzean noticed 2 shady folks in cloaks. They had reptilian tails sticking out below their cloaks. One of them cast invisibility, disappearing, but we were able to follow the other to the area where we had been shown the drop-off warehouse. At this point the 2nd lizardman also cast invisibility and disappeared. Orkbolt was able to follow the tracks he left to an area that backed onto a waterway. He recalled that this was an area where most small time criminals gathered. He suggested we speak to the thugs in the area. We found a young fellow that proved to be a shrewd negotiator, extorting much gold from us to get information that the folks we wanted were about a block away... We headed there. We quickly found 3 enemies to fight, including some nasty characters! We emerged victorious, but it was tight!
What to do now?
Turning away from the Magistrate's house we discussed what to do next. We finally decided to go see Bamidele, the alchemical supplier in the market. We told him he could re-open using his old supplier. He was happy and we headed back to tell Xhokan that Bamidele was going back to his old supplier and would have alchemical supplies for him within the week. He rewarded us with a credit at the Powder Pile, worth 200GP! We bought some Elixirs of Life & made our way to see Teacher Janatimo. We informed him how things were going and asked if we could possible get the Crown of the Companion back. He said he had tested it and found no problems with it. He gave it back to us & we gave it to Moselani. Janatimo was glad to hear we had decided not to investigate the smuggler's dens ourselves. He said that was a wise choice & he would send some folks he knows to see what he could find out about Froglegs and the trouble they were causing around town. We then headed back to check the message board at our dorm. There was only one notice on the board for combatants wanted in the Leshy clearing!
We decided to rest today and head over tomorrow morning fresh! Arriving at the clearing it was clear the Leshies had recognized us and were happy to see us again! A few friendly jibes were thrown & the rules were explained, then the fight was on! We cleared the 1st round fairly well. We rested, then prepared for the 2nd fight! This fight went well for us. Afterward, the lead Leshy came and told us to come back the following day as he did not want the final fight to be unfair for us. We agreed and headed back to our dorm to rest. The next day we returned and fought their largest golem yet! This single creature, while huge, was fighting us alone. It was a tense fight, but no real danger. When we emerged victorious the Leshies swarmed around us, congratulating us. We headed back to our dorm to recover.
When we got back we found a note resting on Laraena's bed. It listed 3 requests for assistance.
1: Ghost Stories
Requester: Lesedi
Please meet me at my office
2: Busker Woes
Requester: Janatimo
Please meet me at the Speakers Stage
3: Tell a Tale
Requester: Janatimo
Please meet me at the Black-Crowned Cane Restaurant
We discussed and then decided to head to go see Teacher Lesedi about her "Ghost Stories". She asked us to go see Tokku, a friend of hers, at his home. We went o see him right away. He explained a Poltergeist was plaguing him. He told us that the one time he saw it that it appeared as a catfolk & asked that we get rid of the creature. As soon as we stepped inside debris started flying around, some smashing Laraena in the face. She was furious, yelling out at the whirlwind and the creature that appeared from it "What the hell is your problem"?? This caused the creature to pause in surprise. He spoke to the group, surprised that anyone took time to talk to him. It had been some time since anyone had tried. Laraena was able to tell this really was a Poltergeist. Upon being questioned it told them that he wanted a Leopard figurine of the most beautiful rainbow hues returned. He introduced himself as Gerrus, telling us this had been his home. He felt a couple of years had passed. It was stolen by someone he thought was his best friend, Kalembi, who murdered him and took the statue. Laraena recognized this name. He was one of Nantambu's wealthiest traders about 20 years ago. Obviously this Poltergeist did not have an accurate sense of how much time had passed. She recalled information about both his export business and where his home was. She was not sure if he still resided in the area. After some discussion we decided to head to Kalembi's manor. Some guards asked our business, then passed us through when we identified ourselves as mages from the Magaambya. The manor was very run down, having obviously seen better days. We met with Kalembi, asking about the whereabouts of the statue. He tried to lie, saying he did not know anyone named Gerrus. When we explained what had become of Gerrus, his demeanor changed. He looked crestfallen, explaining he did not know it would come to this. He began telling us his story. He explained he had the most successful import business in Nantambu. He was careless and became indebted to a crime lord named Habu the Cudgel. When he could not pay his debts he had to do their dirty work or they would kill him. He was to work with a burglar, who picked the locks, letting Kalembi in to steal items. They eventually insisted that he steal the statue from Gerrus. He picked a night when he knew Gerrus was not home. However, he was wrong and happened upon Gerrus. He knew it was him or Gerrus. He chose himself, killing Gerrus, stealing the statue and taking it to Habu. We gave him no sympathy. He told us the burglar that had assisted him was a Grippli, whose name he did not know. She had been Habu's second in command and he had heard she had now taken over Habu's shady dealings. He felt that Habu had probably kept the statue as a trophy & that the Grippli had probably inherited it when she took over. He then pulled out a thick leather bound manifest. He was able to look through it and identify several gambling houses that would be likely places to look, as they were fronts for this crime syndicate. He gave us the manifest to take with us. TIX3 convinced him that he should go apologize to Gerrus. He seemed convinced and said he would try. We walked back to Tokku's house, where Moselani went in first to speak with Gerrus in hopes that Gerrus would not kill him out of hand. She warned him that Kalembi was there to apologize, explaining what had become of Kalembi. Gerrus agreed to speak with him. After some conversation, Gerrus agreed to let Tokku live there in peace until we could return the statue. We took our leave to update Teacher Lesedi that Tokku could return home in relative peace.
We decided to take some time to contemplate & think about what we had learned recently. During this downtime we heard rumors about random fires starting around campus in the middle of the night. It is probably just some students practicing in abandoned buildings. The fires are quickly extinguished and have resulted in no lasting damage.
Ultimate Powah!
1 week later, we made our way to the ceremony. Teacher Janatimo even teleported our distant loved ones here for this! The group spoke, individually, of how we felt we were best able to use our magic to make the world a better place. Janatimo brought the ceremony to a close & the students and guests were free to mingle. We were now Conversants! We mingled with teachers and other guests. Eventually Janatimo pulled our group aside, as well as a Priestes of Nethys who had graduated with us, having recently returned from a family emergency. Her class had graduated while she was away during the last year. She was introduced as Moselani.
Janatimo explained that we would now have quite a bit more leeway, with us being able to speak with the authority of the Magaambya. We were to see what else we could do to help in the area, but we could continue to stay in the Spire Dormitory while doing so. He suggested that we take Moselani into our group. We discussed this and agreed. He asked that we come see him in a week's time to discuss our next steps. The rest of the night passed without incident.
We spent the next week practicing our various Branches. We also organized a picnic celebration in honor of our graduation to Conversants, mostly to please the Anadi children :) The following week we went to see Teacher Janatimo. As new Conversants we did not need to get tasks from him, but to ease us into this experience he had some suggestions for us. He said that Xhokan, the Kobold store master felt "something was wrong with his supply" or a potter nearby named Amaechi needed help with something or other. We chose to go see Xhokan as he supplies the entire school with alchemical supplies. He explained that he had received a recent shipment of supplies that was cheaper than he has ever paid before. He had been hearing of a rash of problems with student experiments with his supplies. While he had recalled the supplies, he asked that we speak to his supplier about where this latest batch had come from. His supplier's name was Bamidele. He has a stall in the Trading Bazaar. We got a description of the man, but before we left Gazzean examined the supplies. He was able to tell that the compounds were an enhancer, but that it was very unstable! We headed for the bazaar.
We were able to quickly find Bamidele. He very much matched his description! We approached to speak with him. As we did, we could hear whispers from other merchants about the cheap quality of his merchandise. We asked him some questions about his products, eventually convincing him to speak in private. He agreed and we were able to convince him that the latest batch of supplies was faulty. He said he had bought these from a fairly new supplier named Abeo. He said he had no way to contact him, that he just "shows up" when he needs supplies. He expected this would be sometime in the next day or two, as he was now out of supplies having taken all of these faulty ones off the market. We decided we should hang around the market, doing our best to blend in, while we waited to see if this supplier showed up. After about 3 days we noticed a skinny human approach Bamidele's shop. TIX3 was able to overhear their conversation, then Abeo turned to slip away. However, as he did so, he noticed some of us and began to run. The chase was on! After a wild chase through the city we finally caught up. It turned out that this person had been trying to work off a gambling debt. When we questioned him, he was very afraid of the name "Froglegs". We did not get much information from him. He was supposed to collect the alchemy supplies from a warehouse, then leave the money there once he sold them. He never made contact with anyone directly. He did tell us that he knew the supplies came through some of Nantambu's seedier gambling houses. He convinced us to help him flee town as he now felt his life was in danger. We agreed, disguising him and purchasing him passage on a ship. It left 2 days later, with him aboard. While we waited, we staked out the warehouse he had mentioned. Noone showed up in those 2 days, but we did find one of the drops Amaechi had made. We confiscated the ill-gotten coin!
We then decided to go see the potter, Amaechi, whose house turned out to be slipping into the nearby canal. We shored up the house for today, recalled that there may be something in the Magaambya library that may help and then walked downstream to see if we could find the source of the flooding. Downstream we did not find anything causing a blockage, so we returned to investigate at the potter's house. Under the water we found that the stonework of the canal had been melted by some sort of alchemical acid. We informed Amaechi, then went to research at the library for a way to solve this problem. We found several rituals that could help with resolving this problem. We took what we had learned back to the potter's house. Performing the ritual Unseen Custodians we used it to shore up the potter's house for the next year, giving the city lots of time to get the repairs to the canal done. Amaechi was very grateful, telling us he would tell everyone how great the Magaambya was! We then decided to head down the street to the magistrate's house, who Amaechi told us was having similar problems, to offer our services & spread word of the good deeds of the Magaambya. We found there were many workers already handling the problem, with many guards around as well. The guards turned us away without an audience with the Magistrate.
New Responsibilities and a Parting
We turned Amara back from stone with the potions we had been given by Oba. We then started to look for a way to get this Mpeshi back in it's cage. Before we could find anything we were attacked by it though. This was our toughest battle here at the enclosure behind Oba's Wondrous Creatures! Eventually we did manage to knock it unconscious and drag it back into it's cage. Oba tried to weasel out of giving us a reward. We talked her into delivering this to Teacher Janatimo. With that we headed back to the Magaambya to heal. We still had half a day left, so after healing up we went to check out the help wanted board! We found 3 items there.
Testers needed from Chizire - adverse affects unknown
Party Time, again! - Need help setting up party - written by children
Experimental Combustion - new fuel for afterburner, need someone with chemistry expertise
Several people went to see Hybrim about his new experimental combustion. Gazzean in particulare enjoyed this challenge. Much fun was had by all. Then went to see Chizire about his untested potions. Orkbolt & Imryll both tried it out. They found that they were granted Darkvision, but felt like they had been poisoned. That wrapped up this day. The following morning Hybrim and Chizire delivered some thank you gifts to those who had helped out. Around this time we noticed that Amara was missing. Her room was left in a spotless state, with only the Crown of the Companion left laying on the bed. We went to see Teacher Janatimo. When we arrived we heard angry shouting coming from his office. Imryll leaned in to listen. He quickly was able to tell it was Oba, shouting in anger about how hard done by she was with our efforts in saving her animals. Gazzean knocked loudly, swinging the door wide. Once we could get a word in we managed to convince Oba that she was not as bad off as she felt. She finally left in a huff, but at least she left... Janatimo was glad to see her go. She had been yelling at him for about 3 hours by the time we arrived. We gathered up the items she had left for us. We told Janatimo about Amara's disappearance, but he had not heard from her either. He said he would ask around and let us know if we heard anything more. After a few days we received word that she had decided to leave, but that she would be welcome back if she ever wished to return.
"My dear pupil–
I have received word from Amara. It took longer than I had hoped however I can tell you that she is alive, well, and happy.
She chose to remove herself from the environment that was hurting her more than it was helping.
It truly breaks my heart to see such a promising youth pushed away by unfortunate circumstances however, we must accept this decision as it is hers to make.
If she ever decides to return here she will be welcome back with open arms and much praise for the service she has given the Magambaya.
—Teacher Janatimo"
A few days after that we received letters telling us that we would be graduating to the next level of the Magaambya.
"My dear pupil–
Once again, you’ve exceeded the Magaambya’s high expectations of its students. You’ve shown that you are ready to expand the scope of your connections and your magical studies, learning how magic and the world both shape each other.
Because of this, I am pleased to advance you to the rank of conversant. You will represent the school to the outside world while you continue your studies. This representation is significant, and it reflects the trust the Magaambya is ready to place in you.
It’s true that your advancement is unusually rapid, but your services and exploits have been unusually admirable. I, and many others, feel this advancement is long overdue.
Please give the following three invitations to any associates you wish to attend our small ceremony to commemorate your promotion. Join us at dusk a week from today. I’ll ask you to speak briefly about how you see magic being most useful in the world, so please think about that in the meantime.
I know I’ll be telling your tales one day.
—Teacher Janatimo"
We spent some time thinking on what we would say and what the future held for us.
Back to the Hababe... baby!
Returning the following day we found there was one more room we had not explored. Inside, we found a table with some insects in jars alongside some tools. There was also a book shelf along one side of the room. We found some magic, some acids, and tools meant for working with gems. Laraena and Orkbolt were able to identify some of the vials as Formic Acid. We collected what we had found & headed back to Teacher Janatimo's office. He was once again back to his cheerful demeanor! We reported what we had found, speaking about the jars of insects, acids and gemstones. He could not make head nor tails of this, asking us to continue searching out more information about the Griffins that had attacked. We asked if he could facilitate getting the Anadi students back to the Hababe building & see if they still felt drawn to it. We left, heading towards town to see what information we could dig up regarding specific breeds of Griffins and who might be breeding them. After looking around for 4 days we narrowed down the search to Oba's Wonderous Creatures, on the south side of town. We headed to speak with Oba, first thing the next morning!
Arriving at the shop we found a woman behind the counter who was immediately irate with us. She knew who we were & was very upset we had killed her Griffins. She eventually revealed she fed the Griffins sacks full of spiders as their main diet. She was not surprised to hear that they had gone after some Anadi. In conversation she revealed that someone known as "Froglegs" had been wanting to buy these Griffins. He was a shady character who eluded to the Griffins disappearing. She refused to give us any more information about this person, not even a physical description or race. Imryll finally got fed up and headed out back to the animal enclosure area. Orkbolt followed him. Laraena chose to try to diffuse the situation with Oba before following them. She was mostly successful, but it was clear that Oba really had never met this "Froglegs" person. They had used an intermediary to send messages and veiled threats. She said if she thought of anything else that might help she would contact the Magaambya. The rest of the group then hurried to catch up with Imryll and Orkbolt. Soon after we entered the animal enclosure we were attacked by 2 Tigers. After a brief, but vicious, encounter we healed up and then began exploring more of the area. We found that someone had tried to make it look like the tigers had slashed up their food tent, but Laraena could tell they had been made by a blade, sometime in the last 24 hours. Orkbolt examined the lock on the Tiger enclosure, finding minute scratches that indicated the lock had been picked within the last day or so. Orkbolt then found 3 distinct sets of Tiger tracks. He followed the 3rd set to where we found a Tiger stalking something. We were still some distance away, but Gazzean took his clan pistol out, sighted and shot the creature! However, we were all somewhat surprised to see the cat did not even react to this! As Gazzean moved closer to see what had happened he could see that it was made of stone! As we moved closer we saw that there was a trampled sign under the rear paws of the stone Tiger... Basilisk - 1. We then became aware of the hissing to our east. Several of us recognized the name and quickly made others aware of what to expect from such a creature, such as avoiding it's gaze. Orkbolt went to inform Oba about the stone Tiger and the Basilisk, hoping that she would be able to offer some help with re-capturing it. While the others waited, Argent found an oddly made lock pick in the mud of the Griffin cage. Laraena took it to Gazzean, who could tell it was made for a Grippli.
Oba did not have any way to re-capture the Basilisk safely. Orkbolt returned to tell us the bad news, but also that Oba had kept a hood on it's head. This made us wonder if we could manage to get something over it's head to stop it's gaze attack. Amara volunteered to try to get the bag over it's head, while the rest of us tried to knock it unconscious. Imryll used his superior hearing to try to pinpoint where the Basilisk was. He soon heard something moving just out of site. Orkbolt snuck over and risked a peek. He found some sort of odd creature with the hind quarters of an alligator & the fore quarters of a goat with lightning arcing between it's horns! Orkbolt turned to go ask Oba what this odd creature was. Just as he left, the Basilisk revealed itself near the Tiger statue! We managed to defeat it without too much trouble, other than turning Amara to stone of course! After we defeated it we spoke with Oba about how to remove the stoned condition. She offered up some special healing potions to cure the condition for Amara and the Tiger. We chose to do this next time... and also search the rest of the storage huts for anything interesting!
Oba also told us about the Goat/Alligator creature. It was a creature that lived in the clouds called a Mpeshi.
Look what we found!
We bound the Snakefolk and took them to Teacher Janatimo. When we arrived we heard panicked voices from inside. The raised voices were in speaking in Sylvan and obviously speaking about some sort of violence they had witnessed. We knocked and entered when told to do so. It turned out that these creatures were actually students at the Magaambya. Janatimo was able to show us one of their bead strands. He was very upset with us for running them down and capturing them. We explained our side of it and requested that he investigate to get to the truth of what had happened here. He said he understood our position but he would need to work with the other instructors to get to the bottom of this. He requested we follow him to the detention cells to await the results of this conversation. Once there we were each placed in a 5x5 cell inside of a force cage. We could feel that our magic here was weakened. The night passed.
The next morning several of the teachers filed in and told us mentally that we would each answer some questions. None of us could hear the other's answers due to the force cages we were inside of. The 1st question was "Why would you continue aggression vs. a fleeing opponent?" After everyone answered this, we were asked "Do you believe you should be punished as a group or individuals?" After the questioning we were asked to return to our dormitory until they could decide our punishment. They told us the 2 Serpentfolk had admitted attacking us and had been removed from the Magaambya. All of us were released, except Sevastin. Teacher Janatimo went to speak with him while the rest of us left with Teacher's Ot & Coriday. Laraena asked Teacher Ot about receiving some help to remove the curses from Argent and Imryll. He was happy to help, giving us a ritual that should help us remove the curse ourselves. Later in the day Teacher Janatimo returned with Sevastin in tow. He told us that the council wanted to expel the group, but Sevastin had offered to take the hit for all of us. We were all upset about this, including Teacher Janatimo. He had managed to use this ploy to save most of us from being expelled. Sevastin seemed accepting of his fate, since he had some letters from home indicating that his family needed assistance anyhow. We had a large conversation about how this turned out, with the group split down the middle on whether we should have chased them down or not. No resolution was reached, though tempers frayed by the end of the argument. By this time word had spread about Sevastin having to leave the Magaambya. It was a somber afternoon with many of the students turning out to say goodbye to Sevastin in their own way. Food was even brought to the dormitory.
The following morning Teacher Janatimo arrived and took Sevastin aside, using a ritual with some crystals to whisk him away. We spent the next few days helping out around the Magaambya while we waited for next steps from the faculty. Once we were summoned Teacher Janatimo apologized & tried to hide his disintegration of Sevastin... He then went on to remind us that we still needed to find out more information about the griffins attacking the building. He felt with the loss of Sevastin we were too weak to fulfill this request. He suggested a solution. He indicated a mannequin standing to one side. He said this creature had recently arrived at the Magaambya & perhaps it could join us to assist with this task. It appeared to be made of some sort of smooth metal. When asked, the creature introduced itself as TIX3. Upon questioning, it became apparent it was some sort of Druid. We agreed to take this creature with us. Our next stop was to head back to the Hababe building to continue our investigation of it. Our new companion TIX3 noticed a hole in a corner of the 1st room, where we fought the Serpentfolk, that was about 4 inches around. We surmised the Serpentfolk must be able squeeze down enough to slither their way through this to enter the room without touching the cursed door. We were able to avoid it by hopping over the door that Gazzean had removed from it's hinges last time we were here. As we entered the next room one of the wood piles rose up into the shape of a wooden golem. We hesitated, after our recent dressing down for defending ourselves here, but once Laraena was able to identify it as a Wood Golem, not some sort of student, we attacked! This creature hit hard(!), but we persevered. Gazzean took the brunt of the attacks, dropping repeatedly with half the party working to get him back on his feet for the entirety of the fight. After the fight we found some armor talisman's in the room. We finished resting up before continuing on.
In the next room we found a dead female Serpentfolk. She had died with a look of terror on her face that Amara felt was from dying to a Phantasmal Killer spell.
Opening the next door we found a very large snake and a man sized snake, that Orkbolt identified as a Giant Viper. Orkbolt tried to calm them, but it went poorly with him being attacked as he tried. The fight went downhill from there, with pretty much everyone dropped at one point, some multiple times, & Orkbolt almost dying from poison. After the fight we healed up and then moved in to explore the room the snakes had come from. In this room we found a lot of crafting reagents & a lesser Elixr of Life. While most of us waited by the snakes to keep knocking them unconscious we sent Imryll to get help from the Teachers to collect the snakes. They quickly dispatched someone to re-locate the snakes off campus. We went back to our dorm to rest before we opened the next door in this building.
Meeting Teacher Janatimo
Teacher Ot greeted us at Noon when we arrived at his home. He looked grimly through the notes we had brought. He confirmed this Stone Ghost was indeed Uduak Basni. He said this situation had moved beyond his expertise. He asked us to speak with one Janatimo, who would know more about Udak. He was a traveling teacher. While Teacher Ot looked to contact him, we were asked to continue our studies. He did not have any idea how long it might take to reach Janatimo. After a week, word reached Teacher Ot that Janatimo, the leader of the Uzunjati, was returning to the Magaambya sometime in the next week. While we waited, we did some crafting & learning about our Branches. We took some time to see if anyone was looking assistance on the job board. There was a notice seeking someone to test out an updated "flying" experiment. We also heard some of the other students talking about our exploits. It was quite gratifying! We sought out Haibram to see about helping him test out his new, improved flyer! Sevastin was able to help him out, throwing him further into the air with the help of the flight spire like before. However, this time when he reached his apex, he lit some afterburners & flew quickly across campus before returning. He was quite happy with the help and gave the group a magical leather handbag, lined in fur, that purred when stroked. We passed it around to see if anyone could identify what it's magic was. Finally Orkbolt was able to identify it as a Bag of Cats.
Eventually, a paper floated into the dorms, unfolding into a summons to meet with Janatimo. We quickly headed over to his offices. He was quite happy to see us, happy to hear about our exploits! He asked us leading questions about recent events here at the Magaambya. Mostly about the fight with Griffins and the Stone Ghost. He then told us he would be taking us under his wing. We would be trying to find out more about these questions. He said there was a local Griffin trainer that might have more info about why the Griffins had come to the Magaambya & what else we could find out about the reasons for the Stone Ghosts actions. He thanked us for our time & gifted us with the Crown of the Companions. The crown is a magic item that benefits the group. He suggested that we take the rest of the day to ourselves & get started in the morning. The following morning we found that noone seemed to know where the new Anadi students could be found. They had left the dorm assigned to the, preferring to sleep elsewhere. Asking around, we learned from Zenway's kids that they were staying in the Hababe building. They offered to take us to see the Anadi students after supper. We passed the day doing small tasks & studying before heading over after supper. The students allowed us to approach. We asked them about the pull they had felt to come to the Magaambya. They felt the call more strongly from inside the Hababe building nearby. They also said that the Griffin's were different from the sort they had encountered before. These ones had different markings. They thought perhaps we could learn more about them, perhaps where they came from, based on their markings or other identifying features. We offered to look around the building to see if there was any danger here at the Hababe building. They also said that the Griffin's had not followed them here, but had appeared after they arrived at the Magaambya. We finished up our conversation & headed inside to investigate. Most of us got inside the first room before a statue animated outside & attacked Amara, as the last person coming in. The statue turned out to be very tough, but we eventually took it down. In the 1st room Imryll managed to unlock a door heading further in, but not before being cursed. Inside the next room a human man & a Serpentfolk looked up as we opened the door. We spoke with them for a bit, getting the feeling we were being lied to constantly. They said they were members of a club & that we should not be there. They said they had placed the curse on the door, but could not remove the curse. The next door in was closed. They said there was big danger beyond, yet they also said the room was empty... Growing frustrated, Argent finally bashed the door open (it was locked), while Amara grew increasingly angry. She was using all her angry words! As Argent finished bashing the door down, the Human man dropped his disguise, also turning into a Serpentfolk. They attacked us, then tumbled through Imryll, slamming the cursed door behind them. Gazzean used his crafting knowledge to knock the hinge pins out of the door, trying to avoid the curse on the door. Argent slammed through the door, inflicting a curse on her too. However, she was able to catch up and knock out one of the 2 creatures. The rest of the group came running after. Sevastin managed to drop the other one with a non-lethal bow shot.
Our heroes then had a discussion about why we were chasing these creatures down & now what to do with them. Laraena & Sevastin were fairly certain that there were no Serpentfolk enrolled at the Magaambya. We decided to take these folks to see Janatimo.
What to do about the Stone Ghost?
The heroes performed a final meticulous search & healed up a bit before bringing this important information back to the Magaambya. They found 3 more magical masks, along with some expensive rugs hung on the walls. Gazzean & Orkbolt found a secret stash in the wall, but could find no sign of a seam to open. Argent leaned on one end of the stone, breaking it open with a claw. Inside we found more magic! While we took some time to rest up Orkbolt identified some of the magic items. Afterward, we went to investigate the last bits of this area that we knew of, using the new maps we had just found. We encountered a Gray Ooze. It was a little tough, but not too bad. Then we found where some of the Gremlins had been mining. They had thrown down their tools and obviously left in a hurry. We looked down one of the tunnels they had been mining, finding a backpack partially buried in the rubble. Gazzean managed to get it free, but not before the rubble shifted, crushing some of the contents. The other 2 tunnels held nothing of interest. The last room we had not explored turned out to hold 3 fake Giant Centipede traps. We defeated/disabled them and headed back to the Magaambya.
We found Teacher Ot, handing over our findings, along with the notes and maps from the Stone Ghost. Teacher Ot told us to go home and rest up. He requested we give him our full notes the next morning. We spent the rest of the day divvying up & selling our loot. The following morning we returned to speak with the teachers. After we explained our findings, he told us that Teacher Coraday felt that the insects may have been drawn to the Magaambya by an artifact, the Vesicant Egg. Teacher Coraday does not even know if this item exists, only having heard rumors of it's existence. He did not want us to invest any time in trying to track down this artifact. As our conversation was finishing up Esi came bounding up saying that some new students were waiting to meet Teacher Ot. She said they were 3 Anadi. He asked if we would like to come along to meet the new students. We agreed. We met with the new students. As we were welcoming them to the Magaambya 3 Griffons swooped in to attack them. Teacher Ot put up some sort of invisible barrier to protect them while we dealt with them. Afterward, Teacher Ot took them to the dorms while we headed to see about getting our gear upgraded with some of the runes we had found. Teacher Ot requested that we meet him at Noon.
Further exploring under the Magaambya
Deciding discretion was best, we tried to quietly move out of the tunnels, but made too much noise along the way. We heard the patrol come after us. Turning to fight, we quickly took them out without much trouble. Just then we heard a rumbling coming from one of the nearby tunnels. We followed the tunnel to find that there was another Gnagrif, with gold teeth, sleeping inside of a cavity in the wall. We decided to attack it. It turned out to be a variant of a Gnagrif, as identified by Orkbolt. This one could grow to large size and eat rocks to spit at it's foes. It proved to be a tough foe, but we defeated it with team work! We found that it had some magic inside of it. Argent was kind enough to disembowel the creature to find out what was inside. We then took some time healing up and identifying various items we had found along the way. Realizing we were getting low on spells, we decided to head back to the Magaambya to rest up. While there we started the process of getting a rune transferred for Amara.
The following day we continued exploring. In one area we found 3 animal masks with 3 cloaks hanging on the wall. Detecting Magic, we found that one of the masks was magical. We took all from the wall. It was obvious that the former wearers of the cloaks were most likely dead, based on the sheer volume of blood on the cloaks. Behind one of the masks we found a somewhat secret door. Gazzean easily figured out how to swing it open. He did so & we proceeded down the corridor behind it. At the far end of the passage we found a room where we were unsurprised to find another nest of Gremlins. After another brief fight we searched about, finding some treasure before moving on. This time we recognized more Gremlin types, Vexgit by name. Opening a door to one side we found someone sitting at a desk. As we approached the figure it rose and turned to us. As it did so, we saw that it seemed to be a man made of stone. He spoke with us, demanding to know who we were and why we trespassed upon his hall. Laraena recognized him as Uduak Basni, the student who had been turned to stone by the teachers of the Magaambya. As we spoke to him he melded into the floor and began trying to pull people into it! It was a tough battle, with Gazzean being sunk fully into the ground! Gazzean was unimpressed, flexing mightily and bursting clear of the stone floor! Sevastin then landed the final blow with a truly spectacular spell strike that shattered the Stone Ghost into many small pieces. Searching the room we found some magic and some notes the Stone Ghost had left. The notes contained maps of access tunnels underneath the Magaambya, including what we had been asked to explore and map. It was clear that he had been directing the Gremlins, who had been directing the insects.
Kicking the Bee Hive
Shortly, 2 medium sized Mining Bees flew out of one of the southern tunnels. We quickly defeated them, then headed into the tunnel they had just come from. We found that 3 of the tunnels from the first room all led to the same spot. Along the way we found a dead Gremlin with a silver ring. We found a glowing mushroom that was a manifestation of Primal energy. Anyone eating a piece would receive a bonus to Primal casting for a time. After some exploration we found 3 of our dorm mates. Tzeniwe, Okoro & Ignaci. Ignaci was in dire straights from a Bee attack. We bandaged her wounds & helped them out back the way we came from. They told us about a hidden door they had noticed along the way. Once they were out we went back to the hidden door. Opening it we found a tunnel that led to a room with several different types of Gremlins inside. We called out to speak to them, but they immediately reached for weapons! We quickly beat them, rescuing a cowering creature they had with them. Se told us her name was Binji. She told us much about the area down here, saying she was forced to take care of the entire area. She also told us of another creature named Urbel that was quite scary. She agreed to go with us to guide us to different areas, if we could keep her safe. We agreed to this. She chose to ride "Mr. Kitty". Once we cleaned the lice off of her, this was fine with Sevastin. As we rested for a few minutes we were interrupted by several more tiny creatures, that Orkbolt identified as Jinkins. We again made quick work of them, before turning back to resting & healing a bit. Afterwards we followed Binji's directions to the south towards where she expected to find Urbel. Along the way we searched and found some interesting items. As we moved forward we heard more Bees. This time we found a giant Bee that Orkbolt identified as the Queen Bee. It was tough, but we managed to defeat it. At this point we decided to leave the tunnels to get Binji safely out & rest up before we encountered this Urbel. On the way out we collected the map from the Gremlin's secret room. We reported back to the Tireless Hall to report to Teacher Ot, introducing Binji. We showed him the map with locations marked with both already hit locations & proposed targets. Teacher Ot was very upset about this, instructing us to find out who was behind this & "Stop them". Binji piped up and told us that it was "Mr. Ghost" behind this. This person was scary & Binji usually hid when he was nearby. He described him as actually looking like a stone ghost. We surmised this might be Uduak Basni. Teacher Ot was not happy to hear that we even knew this name, calling it forbidden knowledge. He asked us to keep what information we knew about him to ourselves.
We took a day to sell some loot and buy some runes for those who needed them. The following day we headed back inside, finding Urbel fighting a Giant Tsetse Fly. We managed to defeat them pretty quickly. Afterward we found some magic leather armor and a pick. We took some time to heal up. Mostly getting done, just as we heard another patrol coming... Probably somewhere around 10 of the Gremlins. We decided to ... decide this next time!
Attendants!
The students attended the ceremony in the Tireless Hall, the principle site of the masking ceremony. Everyone was there, both students and teachers! We were told we could choose to wear our mask proudly or keep it hidden, only showing it to trusted companions. We would shape our masks, then don them as one once complete. Our group was the last to perform the ceremony, starting after some 3 hours had passed with other groups. Everyone was able to craft the masks they envisioned in their minds. Some of the masks even changed shape subtly to match what the students envisioned. As we donned our masks we were all surprised when the walls collapsed inwards, revealing giant bugs moving to attack. While the teachers moved to help other students we took on ours alone. It was a very tense fight, but we managed to defeat them in the end. Teacher Ulawa defeated her bugs, along with the students she was assisting, then turned to studying them giving us no help. Teacher Ayuwari fought a group on his own, then came to cheer us, again offering no real help. Eventually Teacher Ot finished with his group, then came to assist us, but just as the fight was ending. Imryll called out the Teachers who had stood by while we fought, possibly for our lives. Teacher Ot chastised them as well. Eventually Teacher Ayuwari jumped into the tunnel the beetles had come from. Teacher Ulawa said she was certain these types of bugs would never work together like this. We then went back to our Dormitory to heal up and recover.
A few months passed, with us training some more. We recalled some more information regarding Uduak Basni, the student who had gotten into trouble at the Magaambya & ended up turning himself to stone to escape punishment. We investigated his rooms and found that his statue was missing. In the meantime the Teachers had found a series of tunnels had been found beneath the Magaambya. They had begun assigning students to search these tunnels, with Teacher Koride Ulawa handing out the easier assignments to her favored students. Teacher Ot had an assignment for us. Teacher Ulawa was not impressed that we had been chosen for this important task. We headed in to investigate. Passing through the library we quickly found the way below. As we read the last parties notes on the tables here we became aware of a growing drone. Several of the group recognized the sound as Mining Bees.
Earning Credits
Continuing to explore the rest of the rooms we found more of the books we were looking for. In addition to the listed books we found one about the Ruined City of Bloodsalt, whose residents were said to have sprouted wings and flew away. There was also a partial map of the city. Orkbolt noticed some paper cranes flying in the air. Once he focused on them they reformed into an image of some sort of creatures running and hiding from Silverfish. He did not recognize the creatures. Sevastin recognized the cranes as Spell Skeins. We surmised that the Spell Skeins were telling us they were worried about the Silverfish. We also found a very large Wasp nest and some more magic items. We decided to try smoke to lull the Wasps so we could carefully dismantle the nest to get the pages we needed from it. Orkbolt proved to be very good at this! We finished up at the Tree Stump Library & went looking for the insects that Orkbolt & Imryll needed to find. Orkbolt spoke with Anchor Root & received some concoctions he had made to help fight off the toxins of the Centipedes if we got into a fight with them. Several of our class drank them, with various levels of success. We proceeded to the locations Teacher Ulawa had sent us to, the Leshy Gardens, the Kitchen and the Speakers Stage, to look for the erratically acting insects. Our first stop was the Leshy Gardens. Imryll spent some time tasting poop in the area to see what he could find out about the insects in the area. He was able to tell there were some Bark Beetles infesting the area, seemingly eating similar shapes into any wood in the area. He told us that this was not normal behavior from these mindless creatures. Several of the class recognized these shapes as symbols of summoning. We collected some samples of wood with the symbols & some beetles. We then headed to the Kitchen to see what we could find. The cook, Lumusi Yao, met us at the doors. She had closed them and was turning people away. She told us there were Mites inside, plaguing the Kitchen. Her assistant was still inside trying to clear out the Mites. She asked that we help her out & not tell the other students. We headed inside to help clear them out. As we entered, we were attacked by a swarm of large Centipedes! We cleaned them out. Afterward we found Ibina, the assistant, hiding under a table. She was happy to be rescued. We made sure the Mites were all dead. They were, as they had been eaten by the Centipedes. At this point, Amara was not feeling well. She headed back to the dorms to rest. We then headed to the Speakers Stage. As headed out to the island the stage was on we saw many Water-Strider insects in a state of seeming agitation. We were not sure what might be causing this or them to gather in such large numbers. Orkbolt gathered some of them to take back to Teacher Ulawa. As we turned to leave we were approached by a group of people from Nantambu. They asked us to perform for them, since this was the place for such things. We did well, impressing a well dressed man. He introduced himself as Asanda. Several of us recognized him as one of the 11 Magistrate Mayors that govern Nantambu. We headed back to the dorms, just in time for supper!
The next morning some of us went to breakfast while Orkbolt and Imryll took the information/samples we had collected regarding the insects to Teacher Ulawa. They were met with indifference and hostility for their efforts. While they then went to breakfast, Laraena, Sevastin & Gazzean turned the books into Teacher Ot. We also gave him the other things we had found, this being the Necromancy ritual, the book about Bloodsalt (with it's map) & 3 books we could not read. It turned out they were books on Necromancy. We were happy to turn them over. He rewarded us well. We asked if he knew of anyone else looking for help. He mentioned that he had heard Teacher Zuma was looking for help with a magical experiment. We gathered our companions, though Amara was still not feeling well so we went without her to see Teacher Zuma. When we got there he asked us to enter a magical circle. Imryll had some reservations, but the rest of us convinced him to just get in the circle. Teacher Zuma performed a ritual on us where he drew animal symbols on each of us. It turned out to be a Tattoo Whisperer ritual. We all ended up being able to communicate as if by the spell Message for the next day. We then went to check the message board to remind ourselves what services were requested. In addition to the request for help with a Hang Glider, a request to play a new board game & a request to brew a potion, there was an advertisement for a Lost Chicken signed by Anchor Root, one last one was written in colorful writing, covered with webs. It said "Surprise!" & was signed by Zachva and Zanvi, who we knew were the Anadi children. We decided to help Hybram with his new glider invention. Imryll did his best to help Hybram with getting extra height to test his glider. Unfortunately, he just ended up throwing him into the spire & destroying the glider... We decided to go attempt to help the Anadi children with their "Surprise!" next. We found them waiting just inside the dorm. They asked us to help plan their Mother's surprise party. They told us she likes weaving and flashy magic. She would be turning 68. Thinking about it, she likes baking, bird watching and illusion magic. She prefers to do things for other people. People doing things for her makes her uncomfortable. We decided to give her some yarn, colored by prestidigitation, cast some dancing lights spells & got the children busy helping. She was very happy with the party.
The following day we checked the board to find that all the tasks were still on the board. We decided to see Okoro to play his new board game. Most of us won the game, with Sevastin being very perplexed as to how it was played... While reading the rules several of us noticed there was a scroll of Augury hidden in it. Okoro lost and was very upset about it. He gave Gazzean the game. He also gave us the scroll. We then went to visit Chizire to see what was needed. He told us he wanted us to "obtain" some magic crickets from Teacher Ulawa. The group all declined. We then went to help Anchor Root with her chicken problem. Several people noticed the chicken on the roof of the dorm. Orkbolt used the anti-grav pillar to get to the roof and his exceptional nature skills to calm and collect the chicken. After it was safely returned to Anchor we decided to see if we could convince Teacher Ulawa to part with a cricket. Laraena was able to make a convincing argument about trying experiments and learning. Teacher Ulawa was impressed and gave them a cricket. Chizire took the cricket, grinding it up to put into moonshine. It turned out to not be what he expected, but still gave some benefits while also sickening the imbiber. He gave us the potion & walked away.
The classmates spent the next year doing similar tasks, helping out where they could and currying favor with the Instructors. As the year came to a close they knew it would soon be time for their masking ceremony.
"To advance to the rank of attendants, initiates must craft a mask during their First Masking ceremony. This ceremony involves genuine and often lengthy work, as the students each craft a mask under the eye (and sometimes the aid) of their teachers. There’s one blank mask present for each initiate going through the ceremony. Although made of plain wood with simple eye slits, the masks have magical transformative potential. Containers of cloth, beads, feathers, and metals are all nearby, and incorporating these materials along with shaping the wood allows an initiate to focus their experiences and aspirations into the mask’s final form, magically shaping it beyond what mere craftsmanship can produce.
The heroes aren’t the only ones attending the First Masking. Every initiate from the Spire Dormitory is making their first mask, and several teachers will be present to guide their work. The upcoming ceremony is all the NPC initiates can talk about, so the heroes certainly know of the upcoming event. They should have plenty of time to consider what shape and type of mask they want to make. Animals are the most typical shapes for Magaambyan masks, but other shapes (particularly celestial objects or supernatural beasts) aren’t uncommon.
You might set aside some time between play sessions or during a play session for the players to discuss what masks their characters want to create, as this decision is important for any initiate. They’ll be known according to the appearance of their mask for the rest of their career at the Magaambya."
Currying Favour
The next morning we first set out to find some lost books at the Tree Stump Library, in an abandoned dormitory. Shortly after entering we heard some creatures tearing books in the stacks. Several of the group recognized them as Scrits, a type of Gremlin. We decided to knock them out and toss them outside. Argent got a bit beat up, but otherwise we beat them handily. After cleaning up a bit we searched the room to find a few interesting leather-bound books. Searching the next room we found a room where people had obviously been trying to catalog the library. In here we found one of the books and the list told us that 5 more copies of it had been relocated to the SE room. The next room housed a Giant Silverfish and a Silverfish Swarm. While we fought them we attracted the attention of the 2 more Giant Silverfish. We eventually defeated them, but had to take several hours to rest and heal afterward. Searching the next couple of rooms we found several spell scrolls & a ritual. There were also 2 sets of Bracers of Missile Deflection. In the SE room we did find more of the books we were looking for. We also found a magical gold bracelet. Orkbolt identified this as a Bracelet of Dashing.
Beginning our studies in earnest
Over the next few days we spent some time learning and attending classes particular to the branches we were interested in. We met Teacher Koride Ulawa, a Human female, who is a member of the Rain Scribes. She is interested in Insect Lore in particular and seems irresponsible or lazy, as she blows off here own classes quite often. We also got to spend some time with Teacher Ot. He is very studious, on time and treats his students with respect. He instructs for the Emerald Boughs. He is seen as fair and unbiased. We met a Half-Orc male teacher named Zuma. He tends to use large words and takes longer than maybe necessary to describe things. He tends to correct students over small mistakes. He also teaches for the Emerald Boughs. Some of us met a Human male named Mafika Ayuwari. He has recently returned & he believes everyone should know how to fight. He instructs for the Tempest Suns group. He had a team in the well known Ruby tournament. His team did not win, but they did well. Now that he has returned he is organizing a monthly tournament for the students, helping them practice what to do when they run out of spells. The first Star day tournament was set for the coming Saturday. We all decided to fight in the tournament, entering as a group of 6. However, bouts were only a maximum of 2 people each. We decided to have Amara & Gazzean work together. Orkbolt & Imryll joined up. Sevastin and Laraena joined forces.
That following Saturday we headed for the Leshy Gardens for the tournament! The 1st creature to appear was a Shieldbearer Construct with a Leaf Leshy pilot. Several other students tried to take it our first, being soundly defeated. Orkbolt and Imryll stepped forward to fight. They did well, taking out the Construct handily! Teacher Mafika was very impressed that noone had used magic to to defeat the Construct. Next up was a pair of Constructs, another Shieldbearer Construct & a Sicklehand Construct. This time Sevastin and Laerana stepped up. Again, they handily defeated them, taking some damage along the way. Teacher Mafika was again impressed with this as noone had ever made it through the 2nd round. Now the Leshy's were very upset, muttering obscenities & showing they were very poor sportsman. Teacher Mafika said this seemed like a time for something special. He invited the entire team of 6 to participate in the next fight. He also invited any Leshy's to participate as well. 2 of the fallen Shieldbearer Constructs were stood back up, barely. As well, 4 of the Sicklehand Constructs joined the fight. The last Leshy was piloting a Contruct we had not seen to this point. It seemed to be something called a Bramble Champion Construct. This battle was a little tense but ended well for the students once again. Teacher Mafika congratulated us as this month's champions and gave us an Onyx Dog magical item. We quickly nominated Orkbolt as the MVP and gave him the Onyx Dog.
After the fight we went for some food. Prior to joining the others, Sevastin and Laraena went to the store to see if some more weapon runes could be obtained. After eating, Sevastin and Laraena went to see Teacher Ot to try to glean some favor. It turned out he was actually looking for someone to track down some books for him. They took descriptions and names of the books, all located at The Tree Stump Library. These were;
Studies on the Habits and Migration Patterns of Birds and Drakes of the Continent of Garund, recorded in a leather-bound book.
An Expanded History of the Lesser-Known Peoples of the Mwangi Expanse, recorded on vellum and bound by leather cords.
The Worlds Between Worlds: Exploring the Planes and Demi-Planes, Volume 4, recorded in an extraordinarily large leather-bound book.
Treatise on the Various Communicative Methods of Non-Vocally-Projecting Entities, recorded on a scroll that whispers eerily when unrolled.
Collected Field Notes of the Druid Mata Digemari, a small chest with cramped writing covering its wooden surfaces.
Meanwhile, Orkbolt and Imryll went to see Teacher Ulawa. It turned out she had a task for some students and they walked right into being voluntold. She wanted them to look into insects acting erratically. She gave them a list of locations & told them to record any strange activities & take samples from the areas. She also told them to take care not to disrupt their ecologies too much. She said to speak with Anchor Root re: Centipedes. The locations were the Leshy Gardens, the Kitchen and the Speakers Stage. Once we all gathered back at the dorm we noticed some sheets on the bulletin board advertising for help. One was someone named Okoro looking for people to play a new board game with them. There was a help wanted sign, looking for someone to brew something for them. It was signed by Chizire, the Catfolk. A 3rd one asked if we wanted to fly. Hybram was looking for someone to test out his new hang-glider. After we compared notes on how our various days had gone we agreed to rest and start fresh in the morning. Perhaps we would have more success with our tasks if we worked to help one another accomplish them.
More Trials... and Graduation!
The following morning we were met outside by Ignaci and Tzeniwe. They were here with an assignment for the Emerald Boughs. They asked us to deliver some mail &, perhaps, to listen while we did so to see what we might learn along the way. They had hired some Elephant-Birds for us to ride for the day. We collected the parcels from them and headed to find our mounts! We decided sort the parcels (about 2 dozen in all). 11 of them were destined for in town. We had no problems with delivering these. In town we met Chazina, who was excited about her nieces wedding. Someone else introduced us to his new puppy.
Outside of town was more problematic, with some truly esoteric descriptions to lead us to where these need to be delivered. Asking around town we gathered some information to lead us, we found out where the 4 parcels were to be delivered. 1 of the remaining letters was addressed to the Magaambyan parcel deliverers. We chose to hang on to that one until later in the day. The remaining 5 letters were illegible. We passed these around and between us managed to find out where they should be delivered. We opened the final letter addressed to the Magaambyan parcel deliverers once we returned to home. It turned out to be an irate letter from the Grandmother of one Ndidi. She had sent a package to Ndidi that had never arrived. During our travels today we had heard of a woman named Jatia who had received a delivery that was very likely the missing package. We asked Ignaci and Tzeniwe how we should handle this. They said normally it is our responsibility to find the package and correctly deliver it, if possible. We headed to Jatia's house, finding that it was located directly next door to the correct address. We knocked on the door. It was answered by a cheerful woman, who told us she was Jatia. When we tried to explain the error, she strongly told us that the lamp she had received was hers. We tried to convince her to give up the lamp but she was adamant that it was given to her and she would not give it up. Eventually we stepped next door, knocking. A very small woman answered. This was Ndidi. When we explained the problem to her, she confirmed that it was indeed a lamp that she was expecting from her Grandmother. When we suggested she come speak to Jatia with us she was very hesitant, saying that Jatia scared her. While everyone was distracted Sevastin snuck into Jatia's house through a window and took the lamp. Then delivered it directly to Ndidi. When Jatia saw this she immediately started screaming about us stealing her lamp. After some yelling back and forth Jatia finally gave up and went back inside.
When we arrived back at home we were met by Tzeniwe. He had 3 more letters that needed to be delivered. However, these letters were addressed to gods. Gozreh, Nethys and Mazludeh. Each had instructions on how to deliver the letters. We flew a kite to send the letter to Gozreh, enlisted the aid of anther student for some spellcasting ability to obliterate another letter for Nethys & jumped through hoops to get a snake to eat the letter for Mazludeh. Once back home Ignaci and Tzeniwe met us with a tray of hot cider and a reprimand for how we handled the lamp incident. Several of us headed back into town to grab something to eat. While there, Laraena bought a nice lamp & delivered it to Jatia. Several others purchased some personal items while there as well. We returned home and slept soundly after this busy day!
The next morning we found noone waiting for us. We decided to head to the kitchen to grab some breakfast. When we returned we found 2 people waiting for us, a woman and a man. They introduced themselves as Okoro & Noxolo. They were members of the Uzunjati, storytellers. They asked how our week had gone & what each of us had learned. They told us we were free for the rest of the day but should speak with Instructor Ot at dawn the next morning at the the Ceremony Stage. Noxolo turned as they left to say that we should wear something nice the following morning. We spent the day doing various tasks, ranging from equipment maintenance to buying nice clothes in town. The rest of the day passed uneventfully.
Rising early the next day we made our way to the Central Stage at dawn, as requested. As we approached the stage, arrows started flying toward us. 2 Pugwampi stood on the stage, attacking. After a brief fight we ran them off. It was tense though, with Orkbolt being dropped twice! After the Pugwampi ran off, yelling about the how "Stone Ghost" was gonna get us, Instructor Ot showed up. He was shocked to see the blood on the stage and Orkbolt. We explained what happened. He canceled the ceremony and sent us back to our dormitory to rest and heal.
First Days
The next morning we set out to continue exploring. We met another student, one Haibram Thodja. He asked us to go into the city to try to buy some rare types of chicken, Ojofiri Chickens, from a traveling market. He gave us a description of them. Asking around we were able to find the market and were also directed to one Makena, a merchant in the market. Asking about any poultry we were able to find out that she had 6 chicks. She asked for 5gp per chick. The haggling ended with us getting 5 of the chicks for a total of 20gp. Unfortunately, along the way one of the chicks passed away from the cold. Haibram took the rest inside. We decided to head to the kitchen for a meal. Laraena spent the rest of the day helping the cook and flavoring food with prestidigitation. Amara and Orkbolt decided to go for a hot bath. They found 2 small lizard creatures in the baths, hissing in a hostile manner. Orkbolt was able to identify these creatures as Spellskeins. After much running about and gathering both Gazzean & Sevastin, the Spellskeins noticed the bead strand on Gazzean's armor. They nuzzled him and stood down, ending the threat. However, Amara did notice some cloth wrappings hidden in the baths. Detecting them as magic they were able to identify these as +1 Handwraps of Mighty Blows. The group discussed how to deal with treasure and how everyone saw their role should we get into any combat. Then we decided Laraena could best use the Handwraps as Argent gained the benefits of them as well. The rest of the day was uneventful.
The following morning the students met Esi outside. She explained we needed to oust some Gremlins from the school grounds, without harming them. Instructor Zofu had called them Pugwampis. She explained that another student had run afoul of these creatures in the past. Sevastin and Laraena thought back on what they knew about Magaambya lore. Laraena recalled that this student, one Uduak Basni, took it upon himself to embark upon a genocidal attack on all such creatures on the campus. He was expelled... Orkbolt, Sevastin, Gazzean and Laraena recalled some information about this type of Gremlin. However, they disagreed on some of the details. After some discussion about what they knew as a group it was decided that they should try to gather up some bells to try to scare them away. We would resort to beating them down only as a last resort. We headed to the Powder Pile. There we were able to buy a total of 16 bells. 2 for Laraena, 2 for Argent, 2 for Amara and... 10 for Gazzean! When we arrived we quickly found the Gremlins. Using our bells we were able to move them along, capturing one of them by knocking him unconscious. We took him off the grounds, then woke him up so Orkbolt could question him. He started trying to find out who this "her" it had referred to earlier was. Apparently there was a female Gremlin that had asked them to cause trouble at the school. After some more interrogation Orkbolt released him. As he ran away he called back that he would return & yelled a name - Kurshkin, presumably their bosses name.
The following day we met by 3 members of the Cascade Bearers, Anchor Root, Marianna & Shizeri. Marianna explained we needed to do "finger wiggly magic" to help repel things like the Gremlins. Anchor told us what we needed. 3 types of oils. Then she directed us to where we could find the ingredients to make the oils. Then we would need to combine the ingredients. We asked for some bones at the kitchen. The Cook sent us into town to the Butcher to retrieve some bones. We brought these back to Anchor so she could pick out the "lucky" ones. She then asked us to go carbonize the bones & then create the oil from them. Amara was able to burn them sufficiently with her fire spells. We then rendered the ash into oil. Next she sent us out to gather Scarlet Cap mushrooms. She showed us on a map where we should be able to find some. She also explained that they usually grew at the top of a tree. Gazzean expressed his feeling that this must be some sort of trap as it was a Gnoll sending us out! We tried to understand why he felt this way. He said because Gnolls had attacked his people for a long time & could not be trusted. We eventually set out, making our way to the wilderness that Anchor had indicated. As we approached a tree that looked like it might have what we were looking for, a mushroom creature dropped from the tree. It immediately attacked! After a brief battle we smashed the Mushroom to bits. We climbed the tree and collected the mushrooms. Argent also noticed a small cache of items hidden in the tree. We then returned back to the Magaambya. Once there we were able to render down the mushroom for it's oil. Laraena & Gazzean were stricken by some poison or disease, from the Mushroom creature apparently, when they returned to the Magaambya. Amara took some time to look them over. It turned out that the Myconoid had infected them with Purple Pox, which could be quite fatal within a few days. We chose to go sell the magic items we had just found so we could afford several Remove Disease spells. Some other students were willing to practice the castings, luckily. Soon Laraena & Gazzean were feeling healthy again! We then returned to Anchor, who showed us once again what the Caterpillars looked like & showed us on the map where to look for them. Arriving in the area Amara quickly spotted some Caterpillars & Orkbolt knew just how to gather the best ones, using his Insect Lore! We returned to the dorm and got the last of the oils ready. The other students then prepared the ritual using some cold iron bells from earlier. When we asked about it they taught us the ritual & allowed us to cast it. Orkbolt was the Primary with Laraena acting as the Secondary. Marianna took the, now enchanted, bells to place in the storeroom. We spent a bit of time decompressing before turning in for the day.
Oh The Things You Will See...
Our journey begins at the Magaambya. Once we had found each other from amongst the many students starting that day, Instructor Ot, gave a series of tests as a group. We managed to pass all the tests, some just barely. Afterward he gave us another bead to add to our ribbons, identifying us as Initiates. He directed us to where we would be staying. Along the way we saw many students doing amazing things. We were met along the way by a student named Esi Djana. She told us she was our guide as new students. As we entered the dorms we passed a Catfolk, who was introduced as Chizire. He was lazing about, eating melon and drinking what Esi called "Moonshine". She said not to trust him as he was lazy, kicking him on her way past. We also saw a Gnoll stomping at some Ants & a Human. They were introduced as Anchor & Ignaci, respectively. She then showed us our individual rooms & a spire that was magically enchanted to allow people to jump very high. She explained that unless they had a safe way to land this could lead to a dangerous fall. After the tour of the dorm she started to take us to see more of the campus. As we were leaving, Laraena revealed she was actually Kitsune. Amara revealed she was actually a Fetchling.
We then proceeded to the mess hall. We were met there by a woman named Lumusi Yao. She explained she was the cook. She gave us each a bead to add to our ribbons. She also explained that if we wanted we could contribute here to earn a bit of a wage, working in the kitchens or gardening, etc. We chose to eat while we were there. The fare was quite bland, but Laraena used prestidigitation to flavor the food for the group. Once we were done, Esi took us to see the school supply store, the "Powder Pile" because many magical powders could be found here. She warned us to watch out for the person who managed it, one Xhokan. He introduced himself and gave us each 44GP. He had us craft some beads. We did so, with varying levels of success, only Amara & Sevastin being successful. He took them and put them on a shelf with hundreds of other examples. He then handed us each some plain brown beads to add to our ribbons. We then were given the rest of the day to explore & do what we wish.
With time on his hands, Sevastin explored the dorm. While looking around, he was surprised to find a hidden door! He went and found Gazzean & Imryll to help him investigate. Gazzean was able to open the door. Then he chose to leave. Sevastin asked Imryll to to close the door. A few minutes later Gazzean came back in his armor & they opened the door once again. They found a hatch inside the secret hallway behind it. Below they found a tunnel. Echoing up from below they heard 2 people talking about a professor. Gazzean had no idea how to speak quietly and quickly revealed their presence. After a brief conversation with the voices from below they voices stopped responding. Gazzean, Sevastin and Imryll climbed down to explore. It quickly became apparent to Gazzean that this was a maintenance access area that connected other areas of the campus. They lost interest and chose to climb back up. As they left the tunnel Esi was there and told them not to reveal the area to the teachers. After a bit they returned and told the rest of the group what all the shouting was about, that they had found a hidden maintenance tunnel. We then spent the rest of the day on trivial things.
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